Does anyone remember that song from Sesame Street that declared something like “I love soup for lunch and dinner”? (at least it did in the Portuguese version…) The mission of the song, with contagious rhythm and easy to memorize lyrics was, obviously, to convince the most unwilling child to finish their bowl of soup, preferably at lunch and dinner. In my case and even though I was an unwilling child for almost everything (truth be told), soup was never an issue. Fruit apart I would (almost) always and gladly finish my bowl of soup. And, believe me, in my home soup was a daily thing.

During childhood soup is one of the best ways to guarantee kids have their daily dose of vegetables. And there are great combos, simple and tasty that the little ones will unlikely refuse. The trick is to puree the soup, leaving it nice, creamy and uniform. Try sweet potato with pumpkin, leeks and carrots, sweet potato and broccoli, or spinach and chickpeas. Saute the vegetables in a little bit of olive oil, add boiling water, cook for 10 minutes, and blitz well. Oh! And what about adding, just for fun, one of our own childhood hits, the tiny pasta with letters and numbers?!

But let’s leave childhood for a moment, and enter the wonderful world of grown up soups! Soups with spices, exotic ingredients, all sorts of toppings, roasted veg, steamed veg… an endless amount of possibilities. I love experimenting with soup, truthful to my childhood, soup is a daily meal in my tiny green kitchen, usually for dinner. I like my soup to have all sorts of colors, textures, influences, using only seasonal veg. More so, and as I’ve said here, nature knows better and what’s available in a certain season often is what our body needs to feel good and balanced.

So get ready for a soup for grownups with autumn ingredients: the wonderful squash and one of my all-time favorites mushrooms. Regarding squash my red kuri obsession is still ongoing, however if you can’t find it, use butternut squash. In this recipe I combine the sweetness of the squash (with the heat from the spices and the velvety lushness of the coconut milk) with some delicious sauteed mushrooms. I’ve used two of my favorites, oysters and shiitake, if you can’t find them or don’t have them at hand, any other fresh mushroom will do.

And shall we talk about the mushrooms. They are gorgeous things, come in all shapes and sizes and are super versatile. From a nutritional point of view they are 5 stars, rich in protein but poor in calories and fat, have medicinal properties and help to strengthen the immune system. Interestingly enough our body can only assimilate the mushroom goodness if they are cooked, so in this case there’s no nutritional loss from cooking. But there are a few tricks to make sure your mushrooms always turn out right:

– First: do not wash mushrooms! That’s it, no such thing as getting them under a running tap. Mushrooms are like sponges and will absorb water, that means that as soon as they touch the hot pan they will release the water and boil instead of sauteing. To clean them use a kitchen brush, and a paper towel or kitchen cloth;

– Second: if you want to grill or saute get your skillet on a high heat and let it get seriously hot. Then add a bit of fat and the mushrooms, and do not touch them for about 3 minutes. After that flip them around and cook for a couple minutes more;

– Third: don’t use a small skillet and don’t overcrowd it! Make sure your skillet is large enough for each mushroom to touch the hot surface directly. If you don’t have one, cook in batches. And no matter what you do: don’t overcrowd the pan/skillet!

I hope these tricks help you and do try the soup, it’s so good! I would love to read your comments, so please don’t be shy 😉

Ingredients

(for 2-3)

1 medium size red kuri squash +/- 500g

6 cloves of garlic

1 medium white onion

¾ of a can of coconut milk

1 level tea spoon of cayenne pepper

1 level tea spoon of cinnamon

1 tea spoon of cumin seeds

Olive oil

200 gr of mushrooms (I’ve used oyster and shiitake)

1 tea spoon of butter or ghee (or coconut oil if you want to keep it vegan)

1 small handful of chopped coriander

1 handful of walnuts

1 lemon

Salt

Preheat your oven to 180º. Open the squash remove the seeds with an ice-cream scoop and cut it into cubes. Put it in an oven tray with the spices, the garlic cloves with their skins on, a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Give it a good mix and roast for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile chop the onion and reserve. Prepare everything you need for the mushrooms: roughly chop the walnuts and coriander, clean the mushrooms, remove the stalks and slice the shiitake, and rip the oysters into stripes as well. Get some water boiling in the kettle.

As soon as the squash is roasted fry the onion in a pan with a little bit of olive oil, until translucent. Squeeze the roasted garlic from their skins and add to the pan, along with the squash. Add water, just enough to cover half of the veggies. Allow it to boil and add the coconut milk, and leave it cooking for three minutes. Check the seasoning and blitz the spoon until super creamy. Put the lid on while you address the mushrooms.

Heat a non-stick skillet until very, very hot. Add the butter or ghee (or coconut oil) and as soon as it melts add the mushrooms, making sure they are distributed evenly and flat. Let them be for 3 minutes. Reduce the heat a bit and flip them, adding the walnuts, juice of half a lemon, a pinch of salt and the coriander, and cook them for 2 more minutes.